Robert Aldrich

Director & actor · born 9 August 1918 · Cranston, Rhode Island, USA

Robert Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American filmmaker, known for the films Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), and The Dirty Dozen (1967).

Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, the son of Lora Lawson and newspaper publisher Edward Burgess Aldrich. He was a grandson of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and a cousin of Nelson Rockefeller. He studied economics at the University of Virginia. In 1941, he dropped out of college for a $50-a-week job at RKO Radio Pictures. In doing so, he was also dropped by his family, losing a potential stake in Chase Bank he would have inherited. It's been said that "No American film director was born as wealthy as Aldrich—and then so thoroughly cut off from family money."

Where to start: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).